Thomson

It’s a heck of a way to run a pre-election campaign. On the eve of an expected election, politicians usually spend their time playing up good news, downplaying the bad, shaking hands and kissing babies.

EDMONTON - When Chris Hubick sits his fit butt onto his five-inch fatties, he’s joining a growing group of people jumping aboard the fat-bike trend.

These aren’t your typical fat tires, a term commonly used for mountain bikes. These are fat bikes, with entire bodies and forks custom-made so as to make room for fat, knobbly tires that are purposefully squishy and extremely wide so they float over snow, tree roots and beach sand.

Hubick and many others took up the sport to conquer Edmonton winters, then soon realized the fat bikes are great year-round. Mark Jung, fat-bike go-to guy (and “head of awesomeness”) at Edmonton’s Red Bike store, knows of a new dad who solely uses his fat bike now to pull his baby carriage, since the ginormous tires are incredibly stable and safe.

People in Fort McMurray, who own big trucks and quads and trailers, also love their fat bikes to conquer northern Alberta. Commuters in Edmonton pedal to work on the obese tires to sail over gravel patches and the ubiquitous pot holes. Those with summer cottages at lakes love the tires that float over sandy beaches. Even hunters are opting for the fatties, since they can quietly pedal toward prey.

When Red Bike got its first fat bike about five years ago, only one or two sold each season.

“It came off as a bit of a novelty item to begin with,” Jung said. One company spearheaded the fat-bike revolution, making them largely out of heavy steel — bikes weighed close to 40 pounds instead of an average 25 pounds — and used basic pieces so that they could be ridden hard in slush and snow and the pieces replaced affordably.

“If you break it, whatever,” Jung said of the utilitarian design.

But sales exploded in the last year, with Red Bike selling 35 to 40 fat bikes, now made by every boutique and big-name bike manufacturer out there. Frames are made with aluminum or carbon, with prices typically ranging from $2,000 to $3,000, or as high as $10,000. Tires are three- to four-inches wide — wider if desired — compared to mountain bike tires a tich over two inches thick.

“The industry is pumping them all out like crazy,” Jung said. “As people started riding it more recreationally, that’s when the bike industry started responding. … The practicality of those bikes are real. It’s not ornamental. It’s not a trend. It’s not fashionable. It’s functional so (companies) know this is going to be around for a while.”

When Hubick comes up behind walkers on Edmonton’s river valley trails, he said some mistake him for a motorcyclist, since the five-inch tires grab the pebbles and dirt with a satisfying crunch. But it’s all leg power that fires Hubick over hills, the birds still audible above his own breathing engine.

“As long as you’ve got the muscle, you can climb over anything with this bike,” Hubick said. Instead of inflating the tires to about 45 PSI (pounds for square inch) for regular bikes, Hubick pumps the fat-bike tires to only seven to 10 PSI. “It’s smoother. The squishiness of the tires absorbs a lot of the roots.”

“The thing that’s the best thing about Edmonton is that there’s no other city in the world where you can come out of your back door and find this kind of riding,” said Hubick, breathing heavily in the MacKinnon Ravine. “The only downside is it’s frozen for half the year, so having a fat bike basically opens that whole thing up to you year-round.”

When James Turkington went riding earlier this spring with his wife through Kinnedale Ravine, his wife’s mountain bike tires got caught up in a sandy stretch.

“She was squirming around in the sand, wheels turning and getting grabbed,” Turkington said. He, on the other hand? “With the fat bike, I didn’t even notice it.”

Last summer, with all the river valley flooding, mud bogs and flooded paths, Turkington could wheel through without leaving much of a footprint instead of sinking deep with narrower tires and leaving long-lived ruts. As such, fat bikes actually have a smaller impact on the environment, he said.

During the winter, he gets much farther on his bike seat, able to float over tamped-down snow instead of slipping and sliding, then getting off the bike to push it through wintry hazards.

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